?uestlove – the general International Ambassador for The Funk and Good Vibes – spent some time in Cuba recently as part of his online outpost OkayPlayer, doing a bit of digging and exchanging some cultural notes. It seems that some of the Cuban sensibilities appeal to the Hip-Hop ethos, and make an impression on Quest. I hope Los Cubanos are able to retain their own Roots in the new era.

In the third of our series of Record Boxes commissioned by The Space, Don Letts tells the unlikely story of how rebels from opposite sides of the globe became bedfellows, inspiring the last true musical counter-culture of our age.

If you’re otherwise uninitiated, let me hit you with the skinny – the BBC and Arts Council England set up a digital commissioning and development organisation called ‘The Space‘. One of the more notable things this fund has curated is digitally archiving the late great John Peel‘s record collection for reference. Which, obviously, is amazing.

In the third edition of the John Peel Record Box series, veteran film-making Rasta-Punk DJ Don Letts takes his picks from the fruit of Peel’s well-kept musical garden and gives some context to the importance of the culture and music of the time. briefly touching on Dub Mixing, British race identity in post-war society and meeting Bob Marley through their “mutual love of a certain plant”. Dig it, and click the link above to read about his full list of picks.

Check out this piece of live ‘wax-only’ goodness from DāM-FunK at San Francisco’s premier Sunday night Boogie spot, Sweater Funk.

DāM-FunK remains one of the most prolific of the new Funk artists on the scene at the moment – and lucky for us, he continues to put out little bites of West-Coast Wildstyle jams for our listening pleasure at fairly regular intervals. Follow him on Twitter for genuine nuggets of personal wisdom and humble truths.